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Sam White is one of the many Bush Pilot ledgeds in AK. I knew Jim and Richard while we lived in AK. Got bitten by the flying bug up there in the early 70's. The bug let go of me when I left AK in 2000. Flew wheels, skis and floats. Ended my flying with more hours on floats than land plane hours. Knew alot of guys that flew the bush to make a living. Some of those went to meet the maker while flying.
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Okay, to answer some of the questions, yep I did it in a single. 7310 miles worth. And about 55 flying hours. The longest leg was 4:20 and at one point I flew almost two hours without seeing the ground. I did see some cumulogranite sticking up, but I was at 11,500 and they were quite a bit below me.
I had another two hour leg where I didn't see a road, house, car or other sign of civilization. That was scary. But I was flying along a river most of the time and I would not have turned down a water landing if needed. I had a hour leg of scud running thru a river valley that was pretty spectacular and three IFR legs that included one IMC takeoff and one actual approach. IFR in Alaska is very different than here in flyover country. The lack of radar causes all kinds of issues. Manditory reporting points, time delays on the departures for sequencing or for the proceeding flight to reach radar coverage and blocked out times for scheduled airline operations.
I did however buy this book and thought about it often as I was flying about in the hinterland and I am encouraging MangoMike to author a bus version since he has had the same life experiences.
Some cumulogranite near Yukatat
Best Flying Day - Monument Valley
And yes the plane has a fairly Oklahoma State centric paint scheme.
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On of our guys sent me a few new pics today.
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Jerry,
I don't know you, but really enjoyed your pictures and following your trip. What model's your V35? I had a '66. Thought I needed more levers and now have a '66 Baron with 15,700 hrs on it for the last 10 yrs. So if you're above the single engine service ceiling in mountains in a natuarrly asparated twin, and an engine lays an egg, you're going to hit the ground at a higher speed than a single due to higher stall speed. I'd take a V 35 anyday. Baron costs 3x to maintain for a few extra knotts. I used to fly my V35 into a friends farm strip that was 1,500' with only 1,200 mowed, no problem! I think a V35's as good at short fields as a Cessna 182 and a lot faster. After the V35 I bought a low time Aztec, good plane, then bought the B55, an x-freighter; much better quality and have never cancelled a trip in 10 years for a mechanical. Hard to beat a Beech!
John Grissinger
Kansas City
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John,
Mine is the V35A (closest in this pic). The other plane is a Stretched Deb (A36). We have put a bunch of hours on this plane, but no where near what you have on the Baron. J. Mac McClellan, the editor of Flying Magazine, until this month, said in his closing editorial that his favorite plane to fly after all these years was the V35. It has been a good plane for us.
Trukman, This pic is for you.
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Get the trukman a paper bag to blow into.
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I don't think we could get him back in the plane again.
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For the new guys in the crowd, I flew for 35 safe years with the mindset that I do not want to see another plane near me or up close and personal. Then I get a ride in Jdub's doctor killer enroute to Oshkosh with about 100 of his closest friends and these guys get giddy when the space separation gets down to 3 feet! Bad enough, it's a single yoke and Mango had to set up front so he wouldn't barf in the bag leaving the Trukman with no means of disaster recovery.
There's nothing that will pucker you up more than a 100 of the Beech finest lined up on the runway for departure when they all push up the throttles and the dance begins!
If your not a pilot, it would probably be exciting..... Jdub's daughter Abby set beside me and snored while I wore out my neck muscles.
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Pretty exciting.
I was too dumb to be scared.
bonanza-9552..jpg
Lined up 3 across and taking off every 4 minutes.
bonanza-9570..jpg
abbey-9588..jpg
Abbie was petrified.
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Thanks Jerry, beautiful plane! I'm jealous! John
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